Mike Loades

Biography

Fight director Mike Loades made his Royal Opera debut in 2001 on the revival of I Capuleti e i Montecchi, directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi. He returned in 2006 to create the fight direction for Carmen, directed by Francesca Zambello.

Loades has worked extensively in television as a military historian and historical weapons expert. He hosted the series ‘Time Commanders’ for the BBC, ‘Weapons that Made Britain’ for Channel 4 and ‘Weapon Masters’ for Discovery Networks, and wrote and hosted the programme Going Medieval for H2. He has appeared as an expert in more than sixty documentaries and works regularly behind the scenes as a fight director for stage and screen. He has also directed several drama-documentaries, including The Plot to Kill Reagan, The Plot to Kill Jesse James and USS Constellation: Battling for Freedom for the History Channel and The Hunt for Lincoln’s Assassin for the National Geographic.

Loades’s books include The Longbow (Osprey Publishing, 2013) and Swords and Swordsmen (Pen and Sword, 2011). He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where he continues to write, while also directing for and appearing on television on both sides of the Atlantic.